1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a multi-directional button assembly, and more particularly to a multi-directional button assembly that significantly prevents misoperation from occurring.
2. Related Art
Most of the commercially available portable electronic devices, such as mobile phone, tablet computer, electronic book or media player, have physical buttons with which a user may operate the electronic device. The physical buttons can provide the user with the practical feel of pressing. Although the electronic device has a touch screen to replace the physical buttons, the physical buttons remain disposed on the electronic device.
A typical multi-directional button assembly, in addition to a directional button body (left/right buttons or up/down buttons), is also disposed with one center button body in the central part, so as to provide multiple operational directions. In the prior art, the directional button body corresponding to multiple directions is usually disposed as a plurality of single units. For example, in the Taiwan Utility Model Patent M370169, a multi-directional button assembly is disclosed, in which five button bodies are provided to correspond to five operational directions. Each button body requires different moulds for production and fabrication, so the cost is increased and assembly becomes more difficult.
Additionally, the multi-directional button body is integrally formed. A corresponding direction is changed according to a different position pressed by a user. Examples are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,269,439, Taiwan Utility Model M330550, Taiwan Utility Model M272156, and Taiwan Utility Model M364907. However, when an integrally formed multi-directional button body is pressed and biased to trigger the corresponding switch, a switch corresponding to the center button body is also easily triggered by mistake. Conversely, when the center button body biases to the direction of being pressed, a switch corresponding to the directional button body is also easily triggered by mistake, so the probability of misoperation is increased.